Process of making felt cloth.



Patented May a, 1905.

PATENT rrreE.

JAMES B. LEVAN, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

PROCESS OF MAKING FELT CLOTH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 789,098, dated May 2, 1905.

Application filed June 6, 1904. Serial No. 211,388.

To all 1071,0117, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J AMES B. LEVAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Processes of Making Felt Cloths, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the manufacture of cloths of a high degree of fineness and finish in imitation of kerseys, meltons, and other finely-finished woven fabrics.

Heretofore felt cloths have been made by felting the wool, fur, or other material in hot water and other liquids, which resulted in withdrawing the natural oil from the mate rial of which they were made, thereby rendering the finished article hard, coarse, and inelastic.

The purpose of my invention is to overcome this result by restoring the life and elasticity to the felted cloth, thereby rendering it soft and pliable and suitable for the making of garments of the finest grades.

In practicing my invention the wool, fur, or other material is cut into short length fibers not exceeding one-half inch in length unless it be desired to produce a finished cloth having a nap, when slightly-longer lengths may be used. I have found that a short-length fiber can be felted more closely and evenly than long lengths, which become gnarled and matted and render the finished article full of inequalities. The material after being cut is carded and formed in flat surfaces of a thickness varying with the weight of cloth desired on a cylindrical drum or flat table, after which it is placed upon a hardening-machine and thereafter on a fulling-machine until the process of felting has progressed to about onehalf the desired degree. The distribution and partial felting of the material, however, may be accomplished by any of the methods used in the feltingindustries. The partially-felted material is then dyed whatever color is desired, after which it is allowed to dry thoroughly until every trace of moisture has disappeared. At this stage in my process the partially-felted material is hard and coarse and subject to all the objections that have been mentioned in respect to all felted cloths that have been heretofore made. The dyed and partially felted material when thoroughly dried I place in warm oil, preferably a heavybodied oil, such as neats-foot, and one which does not harden by drying, and the felting operation is continued in the warm oil until the desired degree of felting has been obtained. This second felting of the Wool, fur, or other material is preferably performed by hand, the material being thoroughly worked in order to insure complete and homogeneous felting, and when the felting has been thus completed the cloth so produced is pressed between rollers to remove the excess of oil and before drying and while still impregnated with the oil is finished with emery or other suitable paper or material until the desired fineness of surface is obtained, after which the felt cloth is dried between heated metal rollers or with a heated fiat-iron. This tends to remove any oil which remains in the cloth after the finishing operation, and this is further accomplished by exposing the cloth in a dry atmosphere for ashort period until every trace of the oil has disappeared. The cloth so produced is adapted to any purpose for which woven fabrics are ordinarily employed. It is Waterproof to a high degree, has great strength and durability, is soft and pliable with a highly-finished surface, and the cost of manufacture is far less than in the case of woven goods of equal degree of fineness.

I am aware that felted cloths have been made heretofore and that such cloths have been napped, embossed, manufactured into seamless garments, and otherwise treated, and I do not claim, broadly, the process of manufacturing a cloth by felting.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The process of making felted cloth as herein described, consisting in cutting the material of which the cloth is to be made into short-length fibers, partially felting and dyeing and thoroughly drying it, then completing in Warm oil the felting of the crude fabric so formed, and finishing the cloth with emery or other suitable paper or material and by pressing with a heated iron.

2. The process of felting cloth, which consists in felting the material while submerged 1 in or saturated with Warm oil.

3. The process of felting cloth, which con- 5 sists in dyeing the material and felting same while submerged in or saturated with warm oil.

4. The process of felting cloth, which consists in felting the material while submerged in or saturated with warm oil and finishing the fabric while still thoroughly impregnated with oil by means ofemery or othersuitable 

